The TUSD Governing Board awarded Superintendent H.T. Sanchez a $12,600 bonus Tuesday for achieving 100 percent of his performance goals.
The award, approved by governing board members Adelita Grijalva, Kristel Foster and Cam Juarez, comes on the heels of a contract extension that boosted Sanchezโs earnings significantly just two years into the job.
Members Mark Stegeman and Michael Hicks opposed the bonus, which Sanchez said he would donate to Camp Cooper โ an environmental learning center impacted by budget cuts to the University of Arizona.
TUSD owns the land occupied by Camp Cooper, where children learn in an outdoor classroom complete with wildlife. Camp Cooper is seeking to raise $20,000 for the upcoming school year. To donate, visit crowdfund.arizona.edu/cooper
Before the board awarded the bonus, one parent expressed her disapproval of Sanchezโs salary increase and questioned why he deserved a bonus when his goals are not tied to how students perform.
โIโm just a bit amazed that for a public school system a contract has been put out there that has increased so much within a year,โ Marilyn Reiter said. โI donโt understand how the teachersโ raise in pay was $500, which seems very low for what they do โ they are in the classroom.
โThereโs lots of signage on the TUSD website about how thereโs going to be cuts everywhere โ across the board, administration, here there โ and yet we have given our superintendent a huge increase in salary.โ
Grijalva, Foster and Juarez pointed to Sanchezโs advocacy at the state level for saving millions in funding from being cut, pay increases and no layoffs during his tenure in justifying the award.
Under Sanchezโs contract, he is eligible to receive up to 6 percent of his base salary for achieving his annual goals. With a base salary of $210,000 last school year, the full 6 percent is $12,600.
This yearโs goals align with the districtโs strategic plan, which Sanchez spearheaded and formulated with the assistance of community stakeholders.
Like the plan, Sanchezโs goals focus on five areas: communication, curriculum, diversity, facilities and finance โ all of which carried equal weight.
Though there is an emphasis on executing initiatives that could potentially improve student achievement, Sanchezโs bonus is not tied directly to how students or schools perform, or increasing enrollment.
Last year, Sanchez was also awarded the full $12,600 bonus for meeting a different set of goals that he set for himself.
Under Sanchezโ new contract, which ups his annual base salary every year for the next three years, topping out at $280,000, he stands to earn nearly $50,000 in performance pay by the end of his contract, should he continue to receive perfect evaluations.
